Yahoo News Piers Morgan brands Greta Thunberg 'melodramatic' over climate crisis speech
Piers Morgan has expressed his concerns over the impact Greta Thunberg’s passionate speech about climate change at the UN Climate Action Summit could have on young people.
The 16-year-old activist accused political leaders of “stealing” her childhood as she berated them for not doing enough to protect the environment.
Despite commending the teenager for highlighting the dangers of climate change, Morgan admitted that he was worried that Thunberg’s speech made it sound like the world was coming to an end.
Addressing her speech on Good Morning Britain, Morgan shared: “Here’s my conflicted view of Greta, she’s highly impressive, a 16-year-old girl who is so articulate, so passionate, I’ve got no problem with that and climate change is a very serious issue, I get it all.
“There’s something I felt very uncomfortable watching it yesterday. It was all a bit melodramatic, end of the world, apocalyptic.”
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Worried that young people all over the world will now think the world is coming to an end, Morgan continued to comment: “I wonder the impact she’s now having on young people around the world watching this who must be thinking, ‘Oh my god, the world is literally about to end.’
“It’s not about to end. I don’t want millions, if not billions, of young people watching Greta do that kind of speech and genuinely think the planet is literally about to end, because it isn’t.
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“So climate change is serious, it should be dealt with, it’s an important issue, but it’s not end of the world stuff in the way she’s portraying it, in my opinion,” he added.
However, Good Morning Britain’s weather presenter and meteorologist Laura Tobin responded to Morgan’s comments, insisting that Thunberg wasn’t being melodramatic at all.
“We’ve got a certain amount of carbon dioxide and if we emit that, we’re at this tipping point,” Tobin said on the show.
Is #climateChange happening?Yes
Is it a direct result of humans?Yes
What have been the impacts so far?
What could happen if we don’t reduce our emission?
How will it impact U.K. weather?
How can you help?
⬇️@gmb @piersmorgan @susannareid100 #climatecrisis pic.twitter.com/ALUbjm16pF— Laura Tobin (@Lauratobin1) September 24, 2019
‘We’ll never get back coral reefs, we’ll never get back the arctic sea ice, we’ll ruin the jet stream, we’ll see a lot of the ice melting from the Himalayas and that could release more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
“We’ve got eight and half years. If we don’t stop polluting like we do, it might reduce to six years.”
